Meeting Santa
by Wolf-Girl-Team-Jake-Junkie-91
Summary: So this is my first story. It's about a girl who... meets Santa... yeah, I know, so creative. I'm hoping to finish this, but I don't know when or if it will happen. Hope you guys enjoy this, and let me know if you think I should continue or not! I won't beg for your reviews though. Please, constructive criticism only!
1. Meeting Santa

It was Christmas Eve and I was waiting up once again. I had to find out if Santa was real! I'm sure you won't believe me when I tell you but I'm no child. That's right, I'm an adult who still believes in Santa... call it hope... magic...naïveté...call it whatever you want but it doesn't change the fact that it is.

Now that we've gotten that straight and we are on the same page, let me tell you why this is worth writing. I'm sure many of you doubt the Chrismas magic, but I don't and frankly, I don't want to. So before you go trying to burst my bubble you can stop right there, but do read on, for I truly have a story to tell.

It all started last Christmas, and as I said before I was waiting up, hoping and praying that I could catch a glimpse of Santa, when suddenly it was like time both stopped and went into fast forward all at once. The sensation lasted only a moment, but it was like nothing I had ever experienced before. When it stopped, I looked around and quickly realized that I was NOT in my bedroom anymore. I looked above me and there was nothing but a pitch black sky, dotted with millions of tiny stars and a big, beautiful, full moon casting a bright glow over the landscape. I looked to my right and to my left, in front of me and behind me and there was nothing but snow. Rolling hills covered with a thick, white, beautiful blanket of snow. The odd thing though, was that even though I was only in my favorite pink, brown and white soft flannel pajama pants (with a pocket for my cell phone of course, since I never sleep without it) and a thin, pink, long-sleeved sleep top I wasn't cold at all, not even my feet, which were bare except for a thin pair of socks, and I was standing right in the snow. It came up just above my ankles, so it wasn't very deep, but I should have been cold.

As I was looking around, taking in the scenery and looking for any sign of where I might have been, I heard a soft noise off in the distance. At first I couldn't tell what it was, but as it got louder and closer I realized that it sounded like the jingling of thousands of tiny bells. I thought to myself 'this can't be happening, there's no way', but not a moment later I saw a small red glow off to my right up in the horizon. It came closer to me, steadily growing and you'll never believe it, but not a minute later there was a sleigh parked right in front of me, but this wasn't just any sleigh... no it was The sleigh! I had waited for this moment my whole life! Right in front of me was Santa and his sleigh. Not only was I seeing Santa, but his sleigh pulled by his reindeer too! In fact, they were so close that had I reached out my hand I could've touched Donner... or was it Blitzen? Oh well, that part isn't all that important because in that same moment Santa spoke. "Hello young lady, what are you doing here on the outskirts of the North Pole?"

As shocked as I was, I managed to respond with a fairly weak voice. "S...Santa?"

"Ho ho ho." You've heard it, that deep, rumbling laugh that starts deep down in his belly before it ever even gets to his throat. That's right Santa was laughing at me and all I did was stand there stuttering like a fool. "Let me guess, you are a true believer." were the next words he said.

I could do nothing but nod my head in agreement with his statement. I was completely star struck.

With another of his deep belly shaking laughs he pulled the reindeer up so that he was right beside me and reached a hand down. "How would you like to come and see my home and workshop for yourself?"

I quickly found my voice and replied, "Wow, I'd love to Santa, but won't that ruin the magic?"

He response came quickly, and with a kind and heartwarming smile. "No my dear girl. It won't ruin the magic. Not for a true believer. Tell me, do you keep the spirit of Christmas, the TRUE spirit of Christmas in your heart all year round?"

Without any hesitation, I immediately nodded my head yes while responding. "Of course I do Santa. Without the joy, hope, and love that Christmas brings there wouldn't be any way to make it through the year. Not in today's world. With so much fighting and so many wars, all the violence and hatred that mankind seems to hold for each other, there has to be something so wonderful and magical to balance that out and Christmas time is the only time of year when it seems people are even willing to consider putting down the weapons and leaving behind all the anger and petty problems to show even an ounce of compassion towards their fellow man. Yes, I do my very best to keep the spirit of Christmas in my heart all year round, so that I can share it with others. Maybe make even just one persons day the tiniest bit better."

With a bright, kind, warm smile, Santa reached his hand down, and with a tentative and nervous, but trusting smile upon my face, I bravely reached up and placed my smaller hand securely into his larger one, and a few seconds later, after a gentle, but firm tug, I found myself seated beside Santa on his sleigh and flying through the air at what had to be the speed of light, off to the North pole.

To be continued?

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Keep in mind, that I do not own Santa... he belongs to all of the stories told over time. This story is gaining me no financial profit and is written solely as an outlet for some of my creative juices. This is my first story and I'm using it to get a feel of how the site works. It's also something that's been on my mind for a while. I hope you all enjoy the story. I'm not going to beg for reviews, but I will say that any reviews are greatly appreciated (they let me know you guys are reading my story and how you feel about it) and reviews with constructive criticism are even better.

Here is a link to the outfit being worn as described above (take out the spaces)... www. polyvore christmas_ story_ outfit_ set?id= 173778848


	2. Entering the North Pole

As we were soaring through the sky, I could feel the wind rushing past, freezing my cheeks, the stars above us looked like blurs of light, just zipping across the midnight sky, and the ground with the rolling, white, snow covered hills below looked like a frozen sea just waiting for a ship to set sail to unknown destinations on it. It was strangely odd. Surprisingly, I was able to see everything so clearly, even with us traveling as quickly as we were, and when the only lights came from the twinkling stars, the bright full moon over head, and the soft red glow from Rudolf's nose.

I turned to my left and Santa was directing the reindeer with ease. He called out the directions to them in gentle tones, never once having to raise his voice. I was in complete amazement of how magnificent he looked, so totally in his element. No one could deny that this was Santa Claus, Papa Noel, Saint Nicholas, or the myriad of other names for him. It was as if he command authority from the large beasts in front of us. Looking at the reindeer, you would never think they'd respond to a softly spoken 'raise altitude', or 'slow down some', but these magnificent creatures were doing just that.

As I turned to look at the back of the sleigh, I saw Santa's bag of toys. It wasn't much larger than a trash bag, and appeared to be made from a red velvet, and had a beautiful golden drawstring around the top to keep it closed. Since it was the end of the night, it was laying limply in the back of the sleigh, but the thing that amazed me the most was the thought that this one tiny little bag, in this one tiny little sleigh could hold all the toys and gifts for all the children of the world. I mean, think about it, there are billions of people in the world, how could one man visit every child in one night, even with the time zones creating time differences, and even then how could he fit all of those gifts into such a small space. This truly solidified my belief in the Christmas magic, because without it, none of what I've just shared with you would even be remotely possible.

After a few short moments of near silence as I looked around and took everything in, Santa pointed off into the distance and asked me if I could see it.

I looked and looked, but with no knowledge of what or where 'it' was, and not knowing what I was looking for, all I could see were the Northern Lights, the Aroura Borealis. I asked Santa if that's what he was talking about, but he simply shook his head no and said "Just wait. If you can't see it now you'll see it in a moment." He didn't even seem upset that I couldn't see it or anything, just patient. It reminded me of a father in all of his years of wisdom, simply guiding a child to make the correct decision, even if the child doesn't understand.

So I waited. I waited for what felt like forever, but was really less than 5 minutes, when out of nowhere it looked like a huge city just sprung up from out of the ground! I know my mouth dropped open and had to have been laying on the floor of the sleigh. Once again Santa just laughed that same spell-binding, deep guttural laugh of his when he saw my expression. Once he finished laughing he simply said "I guess you see it now."

I nodded and with a voice full of amazement and wonder, and when I spoke, it was with a voice that sounded similar to that of a child who's seeing something new for the first time, "Is that..."

Santa nodded and said "Yes". With a grand gesture of his hand he said "Welcome to the North Pole."

With those few simple words it was like the dam burst and all of my excitement started flooding out. It was like I couldn't contain a million questions that I didn't even know I had until I heard them spilling out of my mouth. "So do you really have thousands of elves that help you to get ready for Christmas every year, do you work year round to get toys to every child or do you get to take a break, is Mrs. Claus really as good of a cook as she is made out to be, I mean I'm sure she is but... Will I get to meet the elves and Mrs. Clause and..." I just couldn't stop. Heck, I was hardly breathing enough to continue speaking. As a matter of fact, when Santa cut me off to speak I was practically gasping for air.

Santa laughed and reached over covering my mouth with a single finger and said "One question at a time dearie. All of your questions will be answered in due time, and yes, Mrs. Claus is a wonderful cook. If you decide to stay you will definitely be able to have some of her food while you are here. There's just one thing you should know, you can only enter and exit the North Pole once a month on the 24th, so you won't be able to go home again until the end of January. I can make it so that your absence is not noticed using the Christmas magic though. Is that going to be a problem, because if so I can turn around and take you home now."

It took less than a second of thought as my almost immediate reply was "I'd like to stay Santa, if you don't mind that is." I glanced at my phone and saw that it was about 2 minutes to midnight, and without pause to consider how he could get me home and be back here to enter the North Pole all in two minutes I gave him my answer.

He responded by saying "If it was a problem I wouldn't have offered." and with that he blew some dust into the air and told me that it would spread and that is what would keep my absense from being noticed. I turned and watch the dust shimmer and swirl in a magnificent show of color and sparkles as it spread out across the land, floating back toward the direction we had just come from, off to mask my sudden disappearance.

With that Santa said "Hold on" and seconds later there was a massive jump in speed lasting for about a minute as we surged forward through the sky and finally crossed the territory lines for the North Pole, before we slowed considerably and landed just moments later in a large, open, snow-covered field that was very flat compared to the hills outside of the city. Right in front of us was a large barn.

To be continued...

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Disclaimer: Keep in mind, that I do not own Santa... he belongs to all of the stories told over time. This story is gaining me no financial profit and is written solely as an outlet for some of my creative juices. I'm not going to beg for reviews, but I will say that any reviews are greatly appreciated (they let me know you guys are reading my story and how you feel about it) and reviews with constructive criticism are even better. I will say though, that without reviews updates will come slower and when I feel in the mood to write (maybe every month or so unless things change). Reviews will speed that up as I will know that people are reading and enjoying the story, even if it's something as simple as saying "Hey, read your story." *Wink wink.


	3. The Reindeer

As we landed in the field in front of the barn, the large doors were suddenly thrown open and a whole team of elves, there must have been 50 or more of them, came out of the doors and rushed towards the sleigh. They were dressed in little green outfits with white trim. They had on the classic pointy hats and shoes with small silver bells on the tip of each toe. Each elf had a leather belt around their waist and I was able to see that their ears were pointed as well. The only major difference that I noticed about the elves, from what the media has lead us to believe anyway, was that they weren't as short as we have been told. They weren't tall, but they weren't tiny either. The tallest of the elves (that I saw anyway) was about 5 feet, and he was clearly the head elf of these 50, as he was directing groups of elves to each reindeer. The shortest elf was just over 3 feet.

As the elves approached the sleigh, Santa stood up and stepped down onto the snowy ground. He turned around and reached his hand up, offering it to me and he helped me hop down out of the sleigh. As I turned and looked back I saw the reindeer being lined up in front of a small barn to the left of the big one, and the first three in the line were led inside. Santa must have noticed me looking because he explained that the smaller barn was where the reindeer were washed when they came in from a run. After he said that I asked him why only 3 were inside and he explained that there were only 3 stalls inside for cleaning the reindeer, so they took them back in groups. And then he proceeded to ask me if I would like to watch the process that they go through to get each reindeer cleaned up and bedded down after a run, and I quickly responded with a yes.

With that, Santa took my small hand in his larger one, and led me over to the barn. When we got inside they were just getting the first three reindeer into the stalls. The elves were in groups of 5 or 6 and moments after we entered the barn they started the water and proceeded to begin cleaning each reindeer. It took about 10 minutes and was very similar to the way you clean a horse. They got them wet and then using special brushes they soaped down the reindeer's bodies before quickly rinsing the soap off and massaging a special moisturizing lotion on their antlers. Santa explained that the lotion the elves were putting on the antlers helped to keep the reindeer's antlers strong and it also helped to give the antlers the slight shine that was on them. After that they gently dried each reindeer off and led those three, I think it was Vixen, Comet, and Dancer out of the small barn and the short distance through the snow to the large barn, while the next three reindeer, Rudolf, and I think Donner, and Dasher were led into the stalls.

Santa and I followed the first group over to the large barn, where three of the elves were getting each reindeer settled in their respective stall while the other two elves from each group were getting carrots, apples, alfalfa, and hay and placing them in troughs in the reindeers stalls for them to eat. I quickly surveyed the barn. It was huge, and each reindeer's stall was at least 10 feet by 10 feet. The doors were half doors and had each reindeers name on front. I noticed that the walls were covered with different things that were used to attach the reindeer to the sleigh, and even a few sets of tack, such as saddles and saddle pads and stuff like that for if someone needed to ride just a single reindeer instead of taking out the whole team.

I then turned back to where the elves were getting the reindeer settled in their stalls and noticed that they also placed a blanket over the back of each of the reindeer. Santa explained that the blankets would help to keep the reindeer warm. He told me that even though the reindeer were equipped for the extreme cold and were sheltered by the barn, that the temperatures here could fall to extremes and drop too low and cause them to become ill or even cause them to die. Just as the first group of elves finished up getting the food and getting their reindeer settled in the second group brought in their reindeer and proceeded to begin the same process as the first group had, while the first group disappeared through the front doors of the barn. I asked Santa where they were going, and he said that they stay here, that the 50 elves I saw when we arrived are all assigned to the reindeer barns, and they were headed to check on the other reindeer.

I looked at Santa, obviously confused as I asked him what other reindeer there were, and he chuckled as he told me that they kept 100 reindeer here for the elves to use when they had to leave the city on errands for him, that they had several barns similar to this one spread throughout this particular section of forest and each housed anywhere between 10 and 20 reindeer.

Santa then led me out of the barn and to a small dirt lane. We began walking down the dirt lane, when I suddenly realized that I was extremely cold now, having been in the warm barn, and now we were out in the wind and the snow. My body was quickly becoming numb. I began to involuntarily shiver and my teeth started to chatter causing Santa to suddenly look over at me. It must have been only just then that he realized I was wearing nothing but a thin top, tiny thin socks, and pajama pants with no, slippers, coat, or anything, because in only seconds I was cradled in his arms close to his body and he was moving very rapidly down the lane. He spoke to me, and over my chattering teeth I could barely hear what he said. He asked me why I came out in only my pajamas with no coat or socks, but I was unable to answer him back at the moment.

Within minutes we arrived at a Santa's home. It was a huge, beautiful mansion. It appeared to be made with stone and red wood. It had white, wooden window frames and red trim. There were also many balconies spread across parts of the home that were wrapped with white fencing to keep you from falling. The doors appeared to be a solid oak and they were a beautiful snow white color that matched the window frames. They weren't fancy and overstated. Instead they were simple, yet elegant at the same time. Adjusting me so that he could hold me in one arm, Santa quickly flung open the door and rushed inside. The warmth of the house on my freezing body actually, physically hurt as he rushed to a sofa and grabbed a thick, red, velvety blanket and snuggly wrapped it around me before laying me on the sofa and telling me to rest while my body temperature warmed back up.

I was hesitant to drift off, afraid that I would wake up and this would all be a dream, but Santa, kneeling by my side, assured me that he would be there when I awoke. With that I drifted off into a fitful slumber, my body temperature slowly rising back to normal.

To be continued…

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This is a link to a picture similar to Santa's house. I've searched and searched the internet and this is the closest picture I can find to what it actually looks like (again, remove the spaces). www. kakslauttanen. fi/ assets/ 2013/ 10/ SANTAS- HOME_ Juhlatalo_ 1. jpg (If you come up to a website that is not just the picture, just click on the Santa's home link and scroll down to the last picture, let me know if it stops working by the way.)

Disclaimer: Keep in mind, that I do not own Santa... he belongs to all of the stories told over time. This story is gaining me no financial profit and is written solely as an outlet for some of my creative juices. I'm not going to beg for reviews, but I will say that any reviews are greatly appreciated (they let me know you guys are reading my story and how you feel about it) and reviews with constructive criticism are even better. I will say though, that without reviews updates will come slower and when I feel in the mood to write (maybe every month or so unless things change). Reviews will speed that up as I will know that people are reading and enjoying the story, even if it's something as simple as saying "Hey, read your story." *Wink wink.

I also do not own the picture of Santa's house I've linked to here. If you, or anyone you know does own the picture, PLEASE, contact me so I can either ask your permission to use it (if you say no, I will remove the picture) if it's yours, or I can contact the owner and ask permission.

Same with the picture of the sleigh that identifies the story. Unless you count having it saved to your pictures folder on your computer as owning it (which I did since you have to "own" the picture for fanfiction to allow you to use it), then I do not own that one either. I would like to get permission from the original artist to use the photo, so if you know them, drop me a message with their contact info.


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